Keywords & Sub Keywords

Keywords are unique points of reference that you can use to funnel contact streams on a Number, your own short code or shared short code.

In the case of a shared short code, as the shortened number is shared with other customers, the keyword is the point of reference for your account. For example, if you would purchase the keyword 'BIRD' on our shared short code in the Netherlands (1008), this would allow you to receive directly in your account all messages sent by Dutch mobile numbers starting with BIRD followed by a space and then the rest of the message.

If you purchase your own short code, you could set up an unlimited amount of keywords under that short code.

Sub Keywords

A cheaper option that we can provide in the UK and the Netherlands is a sub keyword. This effectively works the same as a keyword, but with a predefined main keyword before the keyword of your choice.

You can select sub keywords following one of these reserved keywords (these are not available as keywords because of this):

“to”

“set”

“mail”

“go”

“start”

“win”

“poll”

A sub keyword is a word used in addition to a keyword that is owned and predefined by us. We own the keywords “to”, “set”, “mail”, “go”, “start”, “win” and “poll” on the Dutch short code 1008. For example, instead of reserving the keyword 'BIRD' for your target audience, you can choose to use 'BIRD' as a sub-keyword in combination with our keyword 'START'.

The main benefit is that a sub keyword is even cheaper than a keyword. A great solution whenever you wish to use multiple variations. An example: you would like your customers to either start a service that is called bird, or another that is called message. By reserving the sub keywords 'BIRD' and 'MESSAGE' you'll be able to let your customer opt for either one by texting 'START BIRD' or 'START MESSAGE'.

Please take into account that a Keyword or Sub Keyword cannot be longer than 1 word.

If you are looking to use 1 keyword but want to differentiate further underneath them, this is possible via the API. Let's say you are going to have a voting contest called BIRDQUIZ, and you want people to be able to vote easily for their suspected answer, by texting:

‘BIRDQUIZ 1’

‘BIRDQUIZ 2’

'BIRDQUIZ 3’

You could build something like this via the API to allow your system to recognize the different votes separately due to the virtual ‘sub keywords’ (in this case the numbers 1,2 or 3) and have the API act differently depending on what people send in. So if the correct answer is ‘BIRDQUIZ 2’, when this is received the API sends a message back saying ‘You guessed it right!’, if the answer is ‘BIRDQUIZ 1’ or 'BIRDQUIZ 3’ the API sends a message back saying 'You didn't guess right :( good luck next time!'